Everywhere in the world, people know the traditional business networks. The influence of the Opus Dei is still visible in France, Spain, Italy and Latin America. Ivy League(1) in the USA is the same as the guanxi we know in China. When we take a look at the online business networks, with his 42 million members, LinkedIn is the most popular one. Others are XING and Viadeo. The most important difference between the traditional and the online networks is the easy accessibility. In addition, the traditional networks also have an ethical dimension. For example, the Opus Dei works with IESE (a business school in Madrid), which want to give people a Christian dimension. Furthermore, the importance of these networks in the USA is not large, but we see that American entrepreneurs invest more money in companies of people who studied at the same universities as themselves.
